There is a growing clamor - particularly from the main beneficiaries of globalization - that rules need to be established to govern the international economy, with a specific focus on questions such as copyright violations, trade sanctions, and protections for increased foreign investment. While there is little doubt that globalization is a major contributor to changes in the definition, boundaries and nature of law, the question remains as to how much law and regulation from different sources is compatible with the assumptions of economic globalization. From a market perspective the point at which state law and regulation move from 'legitimate' non-economic interests into the 'illegitimate' restriction of trade and investment will materialize much sooner than it will from other perspectives. These theoretical questions arise in concrete form for the decisions of international economic institutions such as the WTO. This thoughtful work focuses on the different forms of law which create the legal infrastructure of economic globalization and on how they interact with one another. It also explains how law is used both to maintain and oppose aspects of globalization. In addition it evaluates the governance of the global political economy in terms of the standards of the Rule of Law.

Bill Dunn considers and contests accounts of globalization and post-Fordism that see structural economic change in the late Twentieth-century as having fundamentally worsened the conditions and weakened the potential of labour. Including a comparative survey of restructuring in four major industries; automobiles, construction, microelectronics and finance, the book suggests the timing of change and its complex and contradictory nature undermine structural explanations of labour's situation. It redirects attention towards labour's political defeats and own institutional shortcomings.

Modern industrial sectors are often at the root of global environmental problems such as global warming and ozone layer depletion. Are they also the main source of inertia and obstruction that often hold back international efforts to save the environment? Does the limited success of the Kyoto Protocol process suggest that the fossil fuel industry and others can prevent effective climate action? This book puts forward a distinctive theoretical approach and analytical framework for studying business as an international actor in the environmental field, and provides detailed case studies of the most important environmental challenges in recent years.

"Providing a unique, empirically based perspective on the past and future development of globalization as a long-term process emerging in different parts of the world, this book puts current changes in a historical context in a systematic fashion, unpacking the global political, economic, social, and cultural implications of this change. It traces the resemblance of past commercial networks with emerging digital networks and contrasts them with industrial production systems." -- Book jacket.

The small unpopulated islands in the East China Sea that the Chinese call the Diaoyu and the Japanese call the Senkaku, have long been a source of contention. This volume will undertake an examination of the controversy as it plays out in legacy and new social media in China, Japan, and the West.

This rigorously analytical yet readable book examines trends in new terror - understood here to be the capacity of sub-state actors to secure religious or politically motivated objectives by violent means. The contributors argue that whilst the use of violence to achieve political ends is scarcely original, what distinguishes new terror is its potential for lethality. This, combined with its evolving capacity to draw upon the resources of globalisation, particularly the revolution in communications which has advanced global markets, has also rendered them, and the more developed core states in the international trading order, increasingly vulnerable to asymmetric threats. The book's objectives are to: * examine the character of new terror and its ambivalent relationship to the evolving cybernetic order made possible by technology and globalisation * identify emerging trends and threats in terrorism including cyber-terrorism, eco-terrorism, bombings and CBR material * consider the implications of these characteristics for the Asia Pacific region. This careful examination of the key paradox facing the modern condition, namely that the freedoms of communication themselves facilitate terror cells aimed at unravelling the prevailing order, will be of great interest to academics and researchers of contemporary politics, international relations, business, and Asian studies. The lay reader will also find the book accessible.

"This volume is an important contribution to current rethinking of the sociological categories of religion and the secular. As a whole the collection demonstrates the development of new perspectives and presents a number of highly relevant case studies...It is significant as part of a growing discourse aimed at re-addressing old issues in a fresh and highly insightful manner." . Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen

While social scientists, beginning with Weber, envisioned a secularized world, religion today is forthrightly becoming a defining feature of life all around the globe. The complex connections between religion and politics, and the ways in which globalization shapes these processes, are central themes explored in this volume by leading scholars in the field of religion. Does the holism of numerous past and present day cosmologies mean that religions with their holistic orientations are integral to human existence? What happens when political ideologies and projects are framed as transcendental truths and justified by Divine authority? How are individual and collective identities shaped by religious rhetoric, and what are the consequences? Can mass murder, deemed terrorism, be understood as a form of ritual sacrifice, and if so, what are the implications for our sensibilities and practices as scholars and citizens? Using empirical material, from historical analyses of established religions to the everyday strife of marginalized groups such as migrants and dissident movements, this volume deepens the understanding of processes that shape the contemporary world."

A leading team of experts in the field examines how phenomena associated with globalization impact on political economy in theory and in practice. The volume employs a variety of theoretical and analytical approaches to examine the very changeable nature of the global political economy, in terms of academic analysis, policy, and practice.

Youth, Religion, and Identity in a Globalizing Context: International Perspectives investigates the ways that young people navigate the intersections of religion and identity. As part of the Youth in a Globalizing World series, this book provides a broad discussion on the various social, cultural, and political forces affecting youth and their identities from an international comparative perspective. Contributors to this volume situate the experiences of young people in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Australia within a globalized context. This volume explores the different experiences of youth, the impact of community and processes of recognition, and the reality of ambivalence as agency. Youth, Religion, and Identity in a Globalizing Context: International Perspectives is now available in paperback for individual customers.

Informed by critical theory, the essays in this collection examine the complex dynamics of globalization, the challenges that confront democracy, justice and rights under globalization, and new approaches that seek to contest the excesses of globalization and promote the struggle for global justice. They form a challenging and timely volume that will be essential reading for anyone interested in the normative dimensions of globalization.

This book examines EU discourses on Turkey in the European Commission, European Parliament and three EU member states (France, Germany and Britain), to reveal the discursive construction of European identity through EU representations of Turkey. Based on a poststructuralist framework that conceptualizes identity as discursively constructed through difference, the book applies Critical Discourse Analysis to the analysis of texts and argues that there are multiple Europe(s) that are constructed in talks over the enlargement of Turkey, varying within and between different ideological, national and institutional contexts. The book discerns four main discourse topics over which these Europe(s) are constructed, corresponding to the conceptualization of Europe as a security community, as an upholder of democratic values, as a political project and as a cultural space. The book argues that Turkey constitutes a key case in exploring various discursive constructs of European identity, since the talks on Turkey pave the way for the construction of different versions of Europe in discourse.

Currently the globally-connected world creates complexity for local decision makers. Environmental, social, organizational, and informational problems are pluralistic and messy. Systems approaches are required to reduce conflict and confusion. A key challenge is to apply holistic systems concepts to improve the lives of those served by systems of all kinds. This challenge motivated the theme for 2007's ANZSYS conference-'Systemic development: local solutions in a global environment'. This volume brings together nearly seventy papers covering the following topics: A globally-connected virtual world; Applications of creativity to systemic problem-solving; Conceptual modelling; Critical systems; Information systems; Managing systemic development; Organizational systems; Regional and environmental systems; Social systems; System dynamics; and Systems theory/systems thinking.

This volume is concerned with the complexities of the relationship between globalization and different groups of consumers in developing countries. Globalization, it is argued, can yield frustration and disappointment as well as welfare gains for consumers; it may, but does not necessarily, displace local products and via the rapid recent expansion of the mass media, it offers policy-makers new opportunities to deal with acute social problems.

Do Americans care what foreigners think about the United States? This book makes the case that they should. In these pages, Jorge Castaneda writes from his unique vantage point as a former Foreign Minister of Mexico who has lived, studied, and worked in America. He offers an impressionistic, analytical, and intuitive review of his experience in the country over the last half-century, and shows how foreigners can provide perspective on the United States' true nature. Castaneda brings a different viewpoint to issues ranging from purported American exceptionalism, uniformity, race and religion, culture, immigration, and the death penalty. Visitors and analysts, from Dickens to Naipaul, have generally asked the right questions and described America's most salient features and mysteries. But, they have not always followed through with answers and explanations. Castaneda draws from his work with American civil society and government authorities to provide both insight and context. Americans have long seen their country as "exceptional," standing outside of history, but by comparing its contemporary politics and culture with those of other countries, Castaneda shows how increasing nationalism and nostalgia are actually making the US more like other countries. Castaneda admits that most Americans have never cared much about what a foreigner thinks about their country, but the dynamic is shifting. The outside world means more to the US than ever before, and Americans should care about what foreigners think since they are now so sensitive to what foreigners do. Since Trump's election in 2016, American politics increasingly resemble those of Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia, such that pining for a lost and glorious past is as American as it is British, Mexican, Chinese, or Italian. Now, the questions that serious, knowledgeable, and sympathetic foreigners address to Americans may be the ones Americans ask-or should ask-for themselves.

Globalization and unemployment are two phenomena which are amongst the most widely discussed subjects in the economic debate today. Often, globalization is regarded as being responsible for the increase in unemployment, particularly in unskilled labor. This book deals with the correlation between globalization and unemployment under various aspects: historical aspects of globalization, empirical trends and theoretical explanations of unemployment, effects of globalization in general and of European Monetary Union in particular on umemployment, labor market policy in a global economy, the impact of fiscal policy on unemployment in a global economy, as well as the effects of globalization on inflation and national stabilization policy.

Millions of descendants of the former colonized and enslaved peoples around the world are now classified as poor readers, bad writers, and slow learners. Are they illiterate or silenced people? Are they global citizens or global outcasts? Drawing from case studies of flesh and blood individuals in Mexico and the U.S., this book questions the colonizing images of the "illiterate", and explores the ways in which the long social history of conquest and colonization, plunder and globalization, is inscribed in the personal histories of today's subjugated people. It argues that rather than "limited literacy skills" they face systematic lack of freedom to speak, act, and make decisions about their own lives. Literacy, thus, is understood as a key practice of voice and citizenship.

Drawing on original research from social scientists working on twelve countries, this book explores the key issues faced by nations and citizens as they struggle to rediscover, reaffirm or reconstruct their sense of national identities in the face of globalizing forces. Some nations and peoples experience the fragmentation of once certain identities as threatening and likely to generate political and social breakdown. Others encounter globalization as a challenge which brings uncertainties but also opportunities for adaptation, the evolution of hybrid identities or new forms of protest.

Leading scholars on both sides of the Atlantic analyze the changes to the social structure of cities as a result of recent migration. The contributors consider the link between globalizing cities and existing zones of social exclusion, employment prospects for all residents and the likelihood of social mobility for recent arrivals. A particular feature of the book is the comparative focus of the chapters that, for the first time, seek to assess the importance of national institutional structures.

The key challenges of globalization are diffuse and outside the control of any one state. In its most ambitious and forward looking form, global governance seeks to create an international social fabric, albeit imperfect, which cumulatively, amounts to more than the sum of its parts. Global Governance in the Twenty first Century aims to open a number of new areas for further analysis, and in particular, to begin a process of cross fertilization between different disciplines examining issues related to global governance. JOHN AGNEW Professor of Geography, UCLA, USA MICHAEL DOYLE Harold Brown Professor of United States Foreign and Security Policy, Columbia University, USA MERVYN FROST Chair of International Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK FEN OSLER HAMPSON Director of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Canada RONNIE LIPSCHUTZ Professor of Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA ROBERT PASTOR Vice President of International Affairs, American University, Washington, USA DAID SCHNEIDERMAN Associate Professor of Law, University of Toronto, Canada GEOFFREY UNDERHILL Chair of International Governance, Universiteit van Amste

Drawing on insights from international organization and securitization theory, the author investigates the World Health Organization and how its approach to global health security has changed and adapted since its creation in 1948. He also examines the organization's prospects for managing global health security now and into the future.

This book is about imperialism-driven globalization, its historic impact on Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and, over time, the varied responses of the national political units and regional entities in these continents to the challenges of building countervailing power and laying foundations for independent development. Where genuine recovery and empowerment have emerged, this has been the result not only of the pursuit of "dignitalist" political and economic values that emphasize robust and sustained productivity geared toward uplifting the living standards and dignity of all the members of the national society, but also of the creation of indigenous institutions whose relations with the external world are defined by equality rather than dependence and subordination. Opoku Agyeman argues that "dignification" is the fundamentally necessary response to imperialism's inevitable afflictions of national/racial humiliation. It is the most crucial ingredient in the complex of motivations that propel formerly weak nation-states and regional communities to rise up and defend the honor of their people. As Mao Zedong told the world in 1949: "Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up." This study argues emphatically that it is a country's or region's developed or developing capabilities, not its historic and continuing victimization or habitual dependence on "charitable aid" and other "altruistic" interventions from the "international community," that determines its success in escaping the scourge of powerlessness and underdevelopment. It further maintains that a people who have been brought low through brutal, dehumanizing imperialism cannot bypass the need for redemptive empowerment if they wish to regain honor and a proper place in the world. Finally, it takes issue with Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, and others like them whose moralistic critiques of the rapacity of imperialistic globalization carry the unfortunate implication that it is possible for a fair and just world social order to come out of incremental reforms of philanthropically-motivated developed, powerful countries, in the structure and operations of global capitalism.

This book aims to address this neglect in the European context with concentration on the UK case. Conceptually, This book explores the meanings of diaspora and whether this is an appropriate concept to refer to Latin American migration to Europe in particular. It also examines the utility of transnationality and transmigration as useful in explaining and assessing the realities of the movement of Latin Americans around the world. The book provides important conceptual discussions of some key themes in relation to Latin American migrants in general, such as poverty, negotiating institutions, family life and domestic service and mainly in relation to the European context. Perhaps most importantly in terms of the state of current knowledge on the topic, it uncovers the lives of Latin American migrants in the UK, which have remained largely hidden to date.

Cultures, Communities, Identities explores a wide range of cultural strategies to promote participation and empowerment in both First and Third World settings. This book starts by analyzing contemporary debates on cultures, communities, and identities, in the context of globalization. This sets the framework for the discussion of cultural strategies to combat social exclusion and to promote community participation in transformative agendas for local economic and social development. The final chapter focuses on the use of cultural strategies and new technologies across national boundaries, at the global level.

In a sophisticated and far-reaching blend of theory and reflection, Thinking the Twenty-First Century takes a provocative look at the changes required to build a new global political economy. McIntosh charts five system changes essential to this transition: globality and Earth awareness; the rebalancing of science and awe; peacefulness and the feminization of decision-making; the re-organization of our institutions; and, evolution, adaptation and learning. That they are all connected should be obvious, but that they are written about together is less common.McIntosh argues that these five changes are already under way and need to be accelerated. Combining science, philosophy, politics and economics, Thinking the Twenty-First Century questions our current model of capitalism and calls for a much-needed new order. This forceful call to action advocates a balanced political economy with trandisciplinarity, connectivity, accountability and transparency at its centre, as an alternative to a world built on the failing system of neoliberal economics.From one of the pioneers of the global corporate sustainability and social responsibility movement, this unique book combines analysis, diary and reflection to present a radical way forward for the twenty-first century.

Democracy is back, at least as a topic of concern among rural sociologists. The Neoliberal cast of the recent pursuit of globalization in world politics has led to the development of a wide range of critiques united by the same question: what about democracy? From this perspective, the main issue with globalization is the globalization of what - the market or the policy, the citizen as consumer or the citizen as citizen. This volume brings together some of the recent work of rural sociologists on democracy, in an effort to bring into sharper focus this work's distinctive contributions to the understanding the question of what is and should be globalized, with particular emphasis on rural concerns and rural people. Half the world still lives in rural areas, and the entire world depends upon the success of rural areas in providing the means for human subsistence. The impact of globalization on rural democratization thus has implications for everyone. The volume has three sections. The first draws together a range of theoretical work on rural democratization. The second explores processes of rural democratization in the rich countries of the world. The third investigates the distinctive manifestations of rural democratization efforts in the poor countries.